


Providence

by mithrel



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Blanket Permission, Gen, Podfic Welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-24
Updated: 2009-06-24
Packaged: 2017-11-10 09:19:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/464680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mithrel/pseuds/mithrel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin has a nightmare involving Arthur, and asks Gaius what happened when he was sick. Coda to "The Poisoned Chalice."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Providence

_Arthur, approaching him with an incredulous look on his face. “Do I know you?” The dagger, spinning straight at Arthur. Arthur, pinned under Valiant’s shield. Arthur, fighting the Afanc. Arthur, hanging from a cliff in a dark cave while a giant spider menaced him._

“ _No!_ ” Merlin propelled himself out of the nightmare. He looked around wildly. His bed. His room. Arthur was fine. He was back from the Forests of Balor, and he was fine. He was no longer even in prison.

That last image, though…he had been there for all the others, but there was no way he could have seen Arthur in the cave. Had he imagined it?

He stared at the ceiling for awhile, as the light brightened and noises began outside his window. At that point, he gave up on getting back to sleep and got dressed.

When he came out, Gaius looked at him in surprise. “You’re up early.”

He shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“You should rest. You’re still not completely recovered from the poison.”

“Gaius, what happened when I was sick?” he demanded.

“Gwen and I looked after you while Arthur went for the cure,” Gaius said, not making eye contact.

He was hiding something. “But did anything…odd happen?”

Gaius sighed, and after a moment said, “As a matter of fact, yes. You were muttering to yourself.”

“Muttering what?”

“Oh, fragments of spells, mostly,” Gaius said. “I need to make breakfast.”

“What _else?_ ” he demanded, undeterred by this obvious attempt to change the subject.

“You…you seemed to be in contact with Arthur. I thought it was the fever at first, but…”

“What do you mean ‘in contact’?”

“You knew he was walking into a trap. You seemed to be trying to help him.”

Flash: _Arthur hanging off the cliff, brandishing his sword at the spider. “Arthur. It’s too dark, too dark.” A flow of energy from his body, weakening him further. A light appearing beside Arthur. Arthur spying the mortaeues flower. “Leave them, Arthur.”_ It’s too dangerous. _A flood of the spiders coming toward him. “Go. Save yourself. Follow the light.” Arthur climbing the cliffs and managing to grab one of the flowers…_

“Merlin? Are you alright?”

He shook off the…what was it? A vision? A memory? “Yes, I’m fine. I’d better get to work.”

“You haven’t even had breakfast,” Gaius pointed out, and Merlin sat down and inhaled his porridge before running out the door.

***

“So, you actually are here early,” Arthur said, amused.

“I said I would be, wouldn’t I?”

“Well, you can clean up in here,” he said, motioning to the scattered clothes on the floor, the remains of breakfast on the table.

“How do you manage to get it so messy in less than twelve hours?”

“Watch it,” Arthur said, smirking. “You’re talking to the heir to the throne.”

“Oh, _excuse_ me,” Merlin said, with exaggerated deference, “How do you manage to get it so messy, _sire?_ ”

A month ago, Arthur would have put him in the stocks for insolence like that. Now he just laughed, sat down in a chair by the fire and opened a book.

As Merlin cleaned up, he reflected. Had Arthur really changed that much? Or was it him who had changed? He had been convinced the King was some kind of sadistic lunatic if he thought being forced to spend more time with Arthur was a reward. But Arthur had become less of a prat, lately, although he still slipped back into his old behaviour now and again.

He’d tried to shake off his “destiny” any way he could. He didn’t want anything to do with Arthur. But even when Arthur had sacked him, he still ended up back in his service a week later. Something seemed to be drawing them together, and he didn’t mind so much, anymore. He thought of what the dragon had said. “Without you, Arthur will never succeed. Without you, there will be no Albion.”

That wasn’t all he’d said. “The half cannot truly hate that which makes it whole. You are but one side of a coin. Arthur is the other.”

He was beginning to believe it. He’d saved Arthur three times now: from the dagger, Valiant’s shield and the spiders. The last time he might have been saving himself, but he hadn’t thought of that. Arthur had believed him about Valiant, even if he’d later regretted it, and he’d risked his life, and his father’s displeasure, to save him from the poison. Perhaps that had been out of guilt; he hadn’t wanted Merlin to drink, but his father forced him to. Maybe that was why he’d defied him.

He looked back over the past month or so. Given everything that had happened in such a short time he was sure that he hadn’t saved Arthur’s life for the last time, and perhaps Arthur would save his again as well.

“Merlin?”

He looked up. “Hmm?”

“I’ve finished this book. Get me another one.”

He grinned and replaced the book on the shelf, choosing one at random and giving it to Arthur, who thanked him.

As he straightened Arthur’s armour on its stand, he smiled to himself. No, he didn’t mind being Arthur’s servant at all.


End file.
